A little-known Pentagon aide who has helped shape some of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s most inflammatory speeches has a years-long trail of racist, homophobic and conspiratorial posts online, according to a CNN investigation.
Ryan Higgins, Hegseth’s senior adviser for religious issues, has become central to the Pentagon chief’s turn toward Christian nationalist rhetoric, multiple sources told CNN. Those sources credited him with some of Hegseth’s most incendiary lines, including a February speech to the National Religious Broadcasters in which Hegseth attacked the “Godless left.” Three sources said Higgins has also played a primary role in the effort to launch the Pentagon’s new Office of Religious Affairs.
CNN combed through hundreds of Higgins’ social media posts, livestreams and archived blog entries spanning roughly a decade.
In February, he defended a Truth Social video Trump shared depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, calling it “funny,” if perhaps in poor taste for the office, and noting Trump had made Biden a monkey too. In January, responding to tabloid coverage of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in Europe, he wrote of violent illegal immigrants and even many asylum seekers: “They act like barbarians, killing and raping our white women.”
He has written that “Islam teaches death to all who do not comply.” Thousands of active-duty U.S. troops practice that faith. He has called same-sex marriage “abominable.” He also speculated about how many abortions Kamala Harris might have had, citing what he called her “long record of sleeping around.”
His posts have continued since he joined the Pentagon. He has railed against “the satanic cult of LGBTQ,” mocked a same-sex couple’s adoption as “two dudes buying babies” and compared abortion to the Holocaust.
Some of his darkest posts followed the 2020 election. Higgins bragged about his arsenal, saying he had just bought an assault rifle loaded with tactical gear, and declared that Joe Biden had not won, vowing that an election would be stolen only over his dead body. The day after the Jan. 6 attack, he called for fighting harder than ever to take the country back, insisting there had been cheating.
During the pandemic, he compared COVID restrictions to Nazism, suggesting Jews had willingly boarded box cars and walked into gas chambers.
He still doesn’t trust elections, either.
“I have exactly 0 percent faith in our elections,” he wrote. “Time to fire them all…wait…we can’t because the elections are fake.”
Higgins did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. A Defense Department spokesperson praised him as a valued member of Hegseth’s team who does outstanding work, and chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Higgins has focused on troops’ spiritual health and the new religious affairs office. Parnell did not respond to detailed questions about the posts. Two other sources played down Higgins’ influence, describing him as one of many advisers in the department.
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